The Beautiful Apple

Lincoln woke up early, dressed quickly, and hurried down to eat breakfast. This was the big day he'd been looking forward to--his family was going to the county fair.When they arrived at the fair, Lincoln went to look at all the horses, cows, and other show animals. He rode the rides and threw darts at balloons and won a prize. As he and his family walked through the fairgrounds, he saw a booth selling caramel apples, and he decided to buy the biggest and best one he could find. So when it was almost time to go home, he ran to the booth at the far corner of the fair. "I came to buy a caramel apple," he told the woman behind the counter. "Can I pick out a big one?""Sure," she replied. "Which one would you like?"Lincoln carefully studied the apples on display. He pointed to a huge one, loaded with nuts and caramel, and the woman put it in a box so he could take it home.That evening, Lincoln settled down to eat his prized apple. He took a big bite. "Ughhh!" He ran to the kitchen for a paper towel."What's wrong, Lincoln?" asked Dad, looking up from a Sunday school lesson he was preparing on his computer."This apple was the biggest, best-looking caramel apple in the whole fair, but when I bit into it, I found a worm hole!" Lincoln exclaimed. "It's soft and mushy inside too." He looked at the apple sadly. "It looked so delicious, but it's no good. I'm going to have to dump the whole thing!"Dad nodded sympathetically. "That's too bad. It's the inside that counts, isn't it? This lesson I'm working on talks about that too. God says the same thing about us.""Us?" Lincoln looked at Dad in surprise."That's right," said Dad. "We can look good to others--we may even act nice--but the Bible says God looks at our hearts. He knows all our secret thoughts and feelings. He can see any sin we're trying to hide. That's why it's important to be good on the inside. That's why we need Jesus--so He can remove our sin and give us good, clean hearts."- Linda A. Prince